Ghent Film Week: Contemporary Shorts 2
- Aug 22
- 2 min read
FRIDAY, 2 OCTOBER / 20:00 - 22.00
This screening session includes 7 short films.
All films are in English and/or have English subtitles.
@ Velvet Room, Alpacastraat 29, 9000 Ghent, Belgium Entry is free and includes a drink!
The Ghent Film Week is often referred to as Europe's most obscure film festival. An island oasis for art amidst a sea of commercialism. Sure, it's modest in form, as we mainly focus on screening films and less on the glitter and glamour. The festival focuses on contemporary cinema and video art and places its films where they belong – within the vibrant context of other art forms.
Loser (Taiwan) by Mali Chen
In the heart of a decaying city, a discarded inflatable doll awakens in a trash bin—singing. Picked up by a scavenger and thrown into a rickety cart, it joins a band of broken toys and lifeless objects. As the cart rumbles through alleys and forgotten streets, the trash begins to sing in harmony—a surreal chorus of the abandoned.
Running time: 00:05:20
Under the table (Georgia, Romania, Switzerland) by Mariam Bitsadze
During a quiet evening in an art residency, in Cluj, a group of young artists share tangerines, drinks, and conflicting opinions. What begins as casual banter slowly unravels into political tension, emotional undercurrents, and fragile truths.
Running time: 00:12:32
Frames (Australia) by Claire Marshall
‘Frames’ explores the surveillance, scrutiny, and framing of women in a post-feminist context as it works to dismantle or disaggregate the coherent body so that a whole person (a woman) becomes dissected, fragmented into a composite of datasets.
Running time: 00:12:30
To My Grandfather (Germany, Ukraine) by Sofia Samoylova
Ukraine (Region Poltava), 2026. After the death of her husband, an elderly woman is left alone.
In the rooms they once shared, life is meant to go on – slowly, gently, wrapped in grief, pain, but also love and strength. The granddaughter is the author of the film. With this cinematic work, she creates a farewell letter full of love: from the 92-year-old woman to her husband, and from the granddaughter to her grandfather.
About loss, love, and the way to live with death.
Running time: 00:10:15
How to fall out of love (Poland, Ukraine) by Varvara Zarytska
Agata has just gone through a painful breakup and, digging through the dusty corners of her memory and video archives, she desperately tries to piece together the reasons for her romantic failure.
If our memory is a creation, then what is film?
Running time: 00:15:00
Derailed (Russian Federation, United Kingdom) by Arseny Bezrukov
After the rupture, only physicality remains — attraction, collision, repulsion. Inertia without intention, motion without direction, tension without release.
Running time: 00:10:00
Bestiary (France) by Anne Zinn-Justin
Sylvie, a mechanic, raises Léa alone — a rebellious teenager. During a freezing autumn, animal behaviour suddenly changes: nature revolts. In their isolated house at the edge of the forest, mother and daughter will have only each other to rely on…
Running time: 00:24:50
Comments